“Forever Faster.” That was the slogan that Puma chose to accompany a picture of Mario Balotelli inside Monday’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport. The full-page advert appeared beside the newspaper’s player ratings for Milan-Lazio, as though someone had intended for it to serve as a harsh reminder to the Rossoneri. “Just look at who you are missing.”

Only, things did not quite work out that way. Because while Balotelli had put in a solid debut for Liverpool on Sunday afternoon, winning plaudits despite squandering three scoring opportunities during a 3-0 win at Tottenham, the truth was that Milan did not appear to suffer his absence in the slightest as they thumped Lazio 3-1. And the one quality they definitely did not lack, in their first official game under Pippo Inzaghi, was pace.

There were not yet seven minutes on the clock at San Siro when Stephan El Shaarawy gave his first Road Runner impersonation, meep-meeping past Stefan de Vrij on the left-hand side to retrieve a long pass from Daniele Bonera. The forward took just two touches before serving Keisuke Honda with a sumptuous outside-of-the-boot-cross. His team-mate nutmegged Etrit Berisha for the game’s opening goal.

It had taken just 10.002 seconds, according to Gazzetta, for the ball to travel from the edge of Milan’s area to the back of Lazio’s net. And only the same amount of time for El Shaarawy to remind the world of quite what a tantalising prospect he can be.

Two years have passed since the forward burst on to the scene, scoring 14 goals in 17 Serie A games to start the 2012-13 season. He subsequently tailed off, netting just twice more over the remainder of the season, his contributions somewhat forgotten amid the excitement that followed Balotelli’s January arrival. It was Super Mario, after all, whose 12 goals during the latter part of the campaign dragged Milan up into the top three.

Had El Shaarawy been negatively affected by Balotelli’s presence? It was a question asked many times by the national press. Balotelli’s tendency to drift out wide from central positions had cramped El Shaarawy’s space on the left of attack, and obliged the then manager, Massimiliano Allegri to tinker with his starting formation.

But it was also true that young players can experience peaks and troughs in their form. El Shaarawy was 19 when the season began, and seemed to be slowing down even before Balotelli was signed. There was a hope among fans that they could grow into an effective partnership after having a full summer of working together, until injuries got in the way.

Between thigh strains, hamstring pulls and broken metatarsals, El Shaarawy managed just six league appearances in 2013-14, and only one of them as a starter. His hopes of representing Italy at the World Cup in Brazil were shattered.

Would he ever be the same player again? Antonio Conte had no doubts, including El Shaarawy in his first Italy squad (a group from which Balotelli was notably excluded). Already, such faith seems justified. Although El Shaarawy did not get his name on the scoresheet against Lazio, he was a constant menace, his searing acceleration down the left a key component in Inzaghi’s counter-attacking gameplan.

Marco Pasotto summed things up nicely in Gazzetta when he wrote that El Shaarawy was “back on the right path. Or rather the motorway”. But he was not the only player to impress. Jérémy Ménez exceeded expectations as a false No9, drawing a number of fouls with his direct running – including one from De Vrij inside the Lazio area. The Frenchman stepped up to convert the penalty himself.

Sulley Muntari had already extended Milan’s lead by that point, sliding the ball home after some impressive work by Ignazio Abate down the right. The Rossoneri were guilty of ceding the initiative after Ménez made it 3-0, drawing back and enduring a jittery end to the game after Alex’s own goal gave Lazio hope. But the goalkeeper Diego López, another new signing, saved a penalty in second-half injury time to snuff out any chance of a comeback.

Inzaghi celebrated with enthusiasm. He had been a predictably engaged presence on the touchline, living on his nerves. When Muntari’s goal went in, he charged out of his technical area and down the sideline to embrace his players. That behaviour earned him a dressing down from the referee, Paolo Tagliavento, albeit one that was delivered with a knowing smile.

It is early to draw sweeping conclusions about Inzaghi’s talents as a manager, or indeed about Milan’s prospects for this season. But certainly it was true that the Rossoneri played with a higher tempo in possession than we often saw last season. And Inzaghi believes that the addition of Fernando Torres up front will only raise the pace further.

The Spanish striker was unavailable for selection on Sunday, having only completed the second part of his medical at MilanLab that morning, but his new manager is enthused. “Torres set records for agility and explosiveness during tests that no Milan player had ever matched,” claimed Inzaghi in his post-game press conference. “He will be an additional resource.”

So should Marco van Ginkel, with the Dutch midfielder expected to follow in Torres’s footsteps by joining Milan on loan from Chelsea before the transfer window closes. For Milan, the season is off to a fast start. But Inzaghi’s will need stamina, as well as speed, to wash away the memories of an eighth-place finish last year.

Talking points

• Massimiliano Allegri got off to a winning start with Juventus, the Bianconeri thoroughly dominating Chievo but somehow contriving only to score one goal (they hit the woodwork three times). They nearly got pegged back as a result, Maxi Lopez drawing a sharp save from Gigi Buffon on what was Chievo’s only real attack. But the real story of the day was the debut of 18-year-old Kingsley Coman, signed on a free transfer after he declined to sign a new contract at Paris Saint-Germain. Billed as a deep-lying wide player, he instead led the line ahead of Carlos Tevez in Juve’s 3-5-2, and played with brilliant personality throughout. Already his situation is drawing comparisons with that of Paul Pogba.

• Roma also made a winning start, beating Fiorentina 2-0 at home (with Ashley Cole making a solid debut). But they were made to suffer in the second-half by a good Viola team, who are reportedly close to tying up a loan deal for Micah Richards – with an option to buy next summer. It’s a fascinating move by the Viola, who are developing a definite trend for seeking out players whose careers had hit a lull. So far their successes have been mixed with the likes of Giuseppe Rossi (a particular case, obviously, due to injuries), Mario Gomez and Anderson.

• A new season, but the same old Antonio Di Natale, who celebrated 10 years of wearing Udinese’s No10 shirt by putting two goals past Empoli – the first club he ever played for. Di Natale met his wife in Empoli and would be living there right now if he had carried through with his threat to retire over the summer. Instead, at 36, he is back for another year, and now has 195 career goals in Serie A. Ten more would move him ahead of Roberto Baggio, and into sixth place in the division’s all-time scoring charts.

• Not the happiest of debuts for Nemanja Vidic at Inter, the centre-back finding himself on the wrong end of a pair of deeply questionable decisions from referee Daniele Doveri. First Vidic was wrongly adjudged to have fouled Fabio Quagliarella in the box, and then he was shown a straight red card for applauding a decision by the official – seemingly not even sarcastically. In general terms, Inter were a little bit of a disappointment after a hyped summer transfer campaign, but it’s early days yet.

• Napoli were also underwhelming away to Genoa, but got away with it thanks to a 95th minute goal from Jonathan De Guzman. For the sake of Rafael Benitez, it’s a good thing they did. The club’s failure to make it through to the Champions League group stage has come as an unpleasant shock to both players and the owner Aurelio De Laurentiis, and there is a sense that the manager’s long-term project with the club has been fatally undermined.